CT parents have been working
in conjunction with various legislators to affirm parental rights.† There are notices and articles listed
here in chronological order which document this issue as well as other
issues which have been facing CT parents.

††††††††† ††CT-N videos from Department of Children
and Families Hearings

12/18/2008 - Includes the testimony of parents
whose children have been removed from their care by the Department of
Children and Families, family members cut off from children who have been adopted
or placed into foster care & child advocates on ways to improve DCF

11/13/2008 - DCF
Commissioner Susan Hamilton, responding to questions from two legislative
committees, voices support for giving the agency's 14 field offices more
local autonomy

NOTICE TO CONNECTICUT
HOMESCHOOLERS

Department of Children and Family:† In 2009, NHELD responded to legislators
to help draft legislation that would help protect ALL parents when parents are
reported to DCF or when investigations are initiated. The result has been
the proposal of many pieces of legislation†
(see above: NHELD
Notice to Parents about these DCF reform bills† 02/09/2009) for the 2009 legislative session.

Additionally, following our
request in the past few years, for DCF and Commissioner Susan Hamilton to
amend the DCF policy manual to accurately reflect existing law concerning
homeschooling in order to eliminate any confusion and to prevent future
episodes of school officials falsely reporting parents who homeschool as educationally neglectful or their
children as truant, Commissioner Hamilton finally provided her proposals
for a redrafted policy manual.

NHELD first proposed changes
to the DCF policy manual in March of 2006, and presented Commissioner
Hamilton with a copy of those changes again on June 11, 2007, at a meeting
in the Governorís office. Commissioner Hamilton adopted some of our
recommended changes, but we remained concerned that she made other changes
and/or did not adopt other of our recommendations. Commissioner Hamilton
also alluded to the fact that she was considering proposing legislation
regarding other issues still under consideration. She did not elaborate as
to what that legislation would be. NHELD submitted another letter with
recommendations to further clarify the policies and they responded in kind.